Sound capture devices are known. In particular, sound capture devices often comprise microphones. Conventional microphones, even of the highest quality, may suffer from a number of issues particularly when deployed to capture the sound produced by a sound source.
Some issues particularly arise when a conventional microphone is used to capture sound emanating from, for example, a particular musical instrument which may be being played for recording purposes. It is difficult to selectively pick up only the sound source without also picking up unintended sounds from, for example, ambient noise. Furthermore, if a particular sound source is being played in conjunction with other sound sources, a microphone may be operable to pick up unintended sounds from the other sound sources, which may give rise to unwanted feedback noise.
Typical miking techniques for studio recordings and live performances comprises providing at least one microphone on a stand in front of a loudspeaker which produces a sound based on a feed from a given sound source.
In the case of sound sources provided by electric instruments, such as electric guitars, the direct feed between the instrument and am amplifier is referred to as a dry signal. The sound source itself does not produce sound until the dry signal is passed to an amplifier and loudspeaker. The dry signal may pick up characteristics from both the amplifier and the loudspeaker, so that in relation to electric instruments, the sound heard by a listener is a composite created from the combination of the dry signal and the amplifier and loudspeaker. To capture the sound created by such a composite instrument, there are a number of existing instrument miking techniques.
A typical miking technique for studio recordings or live performances comprises the positioning of one or more microphones on a stand in front of a loudspeaker associated with that instrument. Such a technique has known shortcomings.
Firstly, a single loudspeaker is typically directional and can display different frequency characteristics at different angles and distances. The loudspeaker itself is an acoustic instrument. The desired sound often develops at some distance away from the speaker. Some approaches use close miking of an individual speaker. At short distance it is possible to achieve minimal ambient pick-up and high direct sound pick-up. However, such positioning may then not pick up the rounded or blended sound that a loudspeaker is meant to produce at distance. Conversely, placing a microphone remote from the loudspeaker results in increased ambient noise capture. Any open air microphone captures other unwanted environmental sounds in addition to desired capture of the source sound.
Providing a microphone in front of each instrument-associated loudspeaker also brings an operational and logistical burden. Microphones must be handled with care since they contain delicate electronic components. Provision of a large number of microphones and associated stands results in a large amount of time being used for setting up and taking down equipment.
In the prior art US2002/0168079A and US2009/0180656A propose microphone supports which attach the support strut to the speaker cabinet itself to help maintain the relative alignment of microphone and speaker. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,189 the support is a mounting bar extending diametrically across the mouth of the speaker cone, the microphone body or housing projecting axially back into the cone from a centre region of the support bar. This works poorly in practice because in most speakers there is insufficient room in front of the speaker diaphragm for this, and even when it will fit, the high intensity and proportionately large diaphragm movement towards and away from the microphone prevents good sound pickup.
It is desired to provide an alternative or improved apparatus and method to capture sound.